Here's a thought. Instead of letting goal difference decide teams' positions in a league when they are level on points why not apply another form of GD: gross deficit? Those that owe less go above those that owe more.

A daft notion, although it does carry echoes of Uefa's plan to ban from Europe clubs who have not balanced their books. Either way football is now much more than league tables given the regularity with which accountants produce columns of figures to show how much clubs are paying their players, the percentage of wages to turnover and the depth of their debts.

Members of the Premier League begin each season on the edge of a precipice, with two-thirds anxious to avoid relegation to the Championship and the rest fearing either relegation from the Champions League or a failure to reach it. In each case the financial penalties are considerable, and Europe does not hand out parachute payments to the fallen.

It is no longer enough to win matches. That merely ensures security in the short term. In the long run the average Premier League club hopes to catch the roving eye of a passing oligarch, sheikh or almost any billionaire who is not suspected of having made his fortune in drug trafficking or the white slave trade.

It is largely a matter of luck. Roman Abramovich picked Chelsea when he could just as well have plumped for Tottenham Hotspur. Sheikh Mansour opted for Manchester City when he might have fancied Everton. So Chelsea and City now operate on bottomless financial pits while Spurs have to fight to keep their players and Everton, once one of the English game's biggest spenders, are practically in penury.

Or take the contrasting fortunes of Birmingham City and Queens Park Rangers. When Brum won the Carling Cup in February things at St Andrew's were looking if not exactly up, then slightly above sideways. Then Birmingham lost five of their last six matches and went down.

That was bad enough but now Carson Yeung, a major shareholder and a crucial source of income, is facing money-laundering charges in Hong Kong. Yeung may be as innocent as a spring lamb, but the fact that he is being prosecuted has hit the club's finances hard. More than half the team have departed and St Andrew's may never have felt more like singing the blues.

Down at the old Shepherd's Bush, however, the picture is positively serene. When QPR, newly returned to the Premier League, lost their opening game 4-0 at home to Bolton they appeared set for a season of toil. This may still happen yet the takeover of the club by Tony Fernandes, a Malaysian businessman who owns Formula One's Team Lotus and launched AirAsia, from two more names in motor racing, Bernie Ecclestone and Flavio Briatore, immediately put the manager, Neil Warnock, in the fast lane as the transfer deadline approached.

Warnock bought half a new team and to judge from Monday's resilient 0-0 draw with Newcastle has spent wisely. The defence and midfield looked sound and no side with Joey Barton in its midst will ever lack conviction. Fernandes has taken to talking to supporters on Twitter and while this can be a two-edged sword, creating a rapport with the fans is never a bad thing, even if the new owner has been following West Ham.

Maybe there are those who long for simpler times when football clubs were usually run by businessmen who sprang from the local community. They could be a pain in the nether regions, as self-made men often are, but affection for their teams came from their hearts rather than their wallets.

As QPR chairman in the late 60s, Jim Gregory oversaw the team's rise from Third Division to First in successive seasons under Alec Stock, followed by Dave Sexton's side narrowly failing to become league champions in the mid-70s.

Compared to Gregory, born in Shepherd's Bush and a QPR fan from childhood, your average rough diamond sparkled like the Koh-i-noor and when the supporters began to grumble during one lean spell he declared that he did not care if they all stayed away, he would sit in the directors' box on his own. But like other old boardroom bruisers – Bob Lord at Burnley and Harry Reynolds at Leeds – the football team was in his soul and not merely a rich man's plaything.